Personal Injury Resources

From a list of reasons to leave California, number 19: the high cost of workman's compensation insurance.

19. The burden of paying for insurance to cover the outrageous cost of workman's compensation.

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Read more from this blogger: Checking Out of the Hotel California

A doctor's point of view on Workman's Compensation.

Ok. It isn't cosmetic, but I do have a reconstructive practice too. My reconstructive practice has become more and more a Medicare practice as Medicare is the last of the plans for which I am a Provider. "Provider" really should be a dirty word in plastics as overhead usually makes it a loser economically. My overhead does not become any lower just because your insurer wants to pay me poorly. I do not deny patients appointments at the office but I cannot obviously guarantee that their insurers will pay the bill. I will no longer bill Workman's Compensation. Patient who have insurance with "Out of Network" benefits usually get some coverage however.

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Read more from this blogger: No More Workman's Compensation For Me

Workman's compensation and other reported costs don't capture the cost of losing good employees.

Companies routinely record and report costs such as wages and benefits, Workman's Compensation Insurance, utilities, materials, and space, yet most companies have no and report the cost of employee turnover. It can be much higher than you think.

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Read more from this blogger: Employee Retention: What Employee Turnover Really Costs Your Company

This post points out the obvious: American firms avoid workman's compensation payments to Mexican employees whether they work in the U.S. or for a Mexican subsidiary.

History has shown the Mexican labor pool is heavily utilized during times of economic boom and repatriation during economic downturns. To American capitalist the border does not exist when it comes to exploitation. When it comes to minimum wage requirements, health care benefits, workman's compensation insurance, and social security plans, both Migrant workers and employees of American firms in Mexico have always been excluded.

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Read more from this blogger: America's Cruel History of Mass Deportation and The Reasons Used

Good questions on workman's compensation, including this one:

More important to me is the system used for evaluating workman's compensation. Is someone is in charge of looking at individual abuses? If an individual continually appears to be more accident prone than the rest, I would like to know if there is a program in place to evaluate that person's performance. Sounds to me, from reading the interview that this position is on the cutting blocks and the responsibility will be shared and spread out among other employees. I hope they can work together to find extreme, individual abuse.

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Read more from this blogger: Worker's Comp (Con't)

When you hire a contractor, make sure you don't have liability for workman's compensation.

When you are calling for an estimate, ask if they offer free estimates. Most contractors will give out free estimates. Call several contractors. Your goal is to at least have three estimates to choose from when making your decision. When contacting a contractor for an estimate you will need to qualify them. Ask if they provide the service you need. Ask if they have liability insurance and workman's compensation. Ask if they have a license, if required in your area. If they answer No to ANY of these requirements, thank them for their time and move...

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Read more from this blogger: The roofers

If you have a work related injury, make sure to get it documented! Otherwise it's difficult to get workman's compensation.

In 2002, Rose had to have surgery on her shoulder. The pain had gotten bad. The social science departments housed in Trinity Hall were moving to a new building, Stern Hall. Before the move, Trinity was filled with boxes and bags of discarded books, old exams, outdated files, boring academic journals--the detrius of faculty lives. There was no elevator in Trinity, so the cleaners had to carry the heavy boxes and bags down three flights of stairs. Rose was 55. So she took time off to have surgery but was then laid off for missing too much work. She didn't get any workman's compensation. Her regular doctor said that it was clear the injury was work related (Dr. Platzer), but Rose didn't know about that until it was too late. When the doctor who peformed the surgery (Dr. Lieburg) asked her if the injury was work related, she said yes but that he could put what he wanted. He told her it would faster to use her health insurance through Marriott (the company that manages the cleaning staff at HWS) and put in her records that the injury was not related to work.

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Read more from this blogger: About Rose (or, her title, Bad Luck Rose)

Workman Compensation showing up on the political radar.

Hines and Terry Kinnas, Republican candidate for the legislative seat left by former Rep. Peter Larkin of Pittsfield, remarked on the high cost to Massachusetts employers of workman's compensation and unemployment insurance.

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Read more from this blogger: Photos by Ben Garver / Berkshire Eagle Staff

Everyone's got to pay up sometime.

City Clerk Sandi Ramsey stated that workman's compensation had to be paid. She added that the city has been breaking even after making payments to employees and paying phone bills to keep services from being shut off.

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Read more from this blogger: Paying off Helena's debts discussed

Workman's Compensation can be a thorny area if your insurance company ever decides "claim denied." Here's an excerpt from a story about a man who broke his neck at work and was denied workman's compensation insurance.

There are two words insurance companies love to use. These words are: claim denied. Once you hear these words, you have two choices: One choice is to walk away and forget the whole thing and the other is to find a lawyer and litigate. Here is what you will discover: An insurance company will spare no expense to justify why your claim was denied.

In 1965, my brother Reuben was working for a radio station and he fell two stories off a radio tower and broke his neck. Being a young, strong man, (he was 19 years old) Reuben survived the fall, but he was a high level quadriplegic. Reuben was totally paralyzed from the neck down. There was no hope he would ever walk or move again because there is no cure for quadriplegia.

Shortly after Reuben's fall, my parents filed a Workmans' Compensation claim on Reuben's behalf with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Liberty responded by denying Reuben's claim for disability and asked for a Hearing.

Due to the back up of Workmans' Compensation cases, the Hearing date was several months off. During the Hearing, Liberty's lawyers argued that it was too soon to make a determination about his injury and they asked for a delay. The judge went ahead and ruled in favor of Reuben. Liberty appealed, and another round of Motions were made along with more medical exams and depositions taken from expert witnesses. A year went by, and the Workmans' Compensation Court of Appeals rejected Liberty's Appeal.

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Read more from this blogger: Blog For Arizona: Rick Romero, Sr.: Our Lawsuit Culture

Changes in workman's compensation in Califoria got this Schwarzenegger supporter all excited.

It took almost a year to realize the benefits of Workman's Compensation reform in California, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's promise to fix the system to make the Golden State more friendly to business seems to be paying off, now:

California business owners saw the average annual premium for workers' compensation insurance drop between 13.9 percent and 16.6 percent in the last six months, according to records from the state Department of Insurance.

These would be the first double-digit percentage rate cuts since deregulation in 1995, savings that arose out of legislative overhauls the last two sessions.

"Rates are coming down. Right now, it appears medical cost inflation has been impacted by the reforms. Medical costs were one of the primary drivers pushing rates up," said Jack Hannan, a spokesman for the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California, an industry research group.

That news is, in a word, 'fantastic'!

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Read more from this blogger: BoiFromTroy:Schwarzenegger